Method of comminuting gelatine



Patented Nov. 12, 1929 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ANDREW NEIF, OF PITTSBURGH. PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO CHARLES LB. KNOIXL GELATINE COMPANY, INCORPORATED, A CORPORATION'OF NEW YORK METHOD OF COMMIN'UTING GELATINE No Drawing. Application filed April 1,

My invention relates to the preparation of animal proteins commonly called gelatine, for aqueous solution (as is comomnly done, not in pure water merely, but in milk, gravies, candy mixes, etc). An example-by no means the only example of animal proteins called gelatine with which my invention is concernedis the refined article commonly used as food, to which the name edible gelatine is more specifically and with more limited meaning applied.

Ina companion application for Letters Patent of the United States, Serial No. 16;),- ll i, filed February 18, 1927, I have described the preparation of gelatine in finely divided condition by a procedure termed spray drying. A solution of gelatine, with or without associated substances such as sugar for instance, is atomized into a stream of warm air or into an evacuated space. The solvent immediately vaporizes, and the gelatine in the form of minute globules rains down and may by suitable apparatus be collected.

Spray drying I have found to be the most economical method of obtaining gelatine in solid and finely divided condition from the gelatine liquor of the boiling pots. Nevertheless, spray drying has not hitherto gained acce tance in the industry because of the bulkiness of the product. Spray-dried gelatine as it hitherto has been prepared has a specific volume of about 14, whereas gelatine which after ordinary drying has been ground in a mill has a specific volume of about 2;

and accordingly of less specific volume. The specific volume 18 reduced to about 2. To reduce gelatine to such a condition of comminution and of specific volume with the use of a grinding mill alone would require many times as long.

The same results may be got and with like advantage ifthe spray-dried material be subjected to the action of an attrition mill.

Grinding mills of these or of other types may be employed.

I claim as my invention;

The method herein described of comminutinc ,e'elatine which consists in spray drying a solution of'the gelatine and grinding the spray-dried article.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

ANDREW NEFF.

and, notwithstanding the very much greater time required to dry and grind in a mill, the slower method has, because of the compactness of the product, been preferred.

I have found the bulkiness of spray dried gelatine to be due to adhesion between the minute globules which as above indicated characterize this article, and I find that if I take the spray-dried article and subject it to the action of a grinding mill, I can reduce the specific volume and at the same time increase the fineness of subdivision, and produce in very much shorter space of time than that required for mill grinding alone, an article which both in fineness of division and in spe- 

